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NEWARK – The trickle-down from the University of Delaware’s change at the top landed in athletics Monday.

Eric Ziady is stepping down as athletic director, effective Dec. 31, to seek other opportunities, the university announced. Ziady had been athletic director since October 2012.

Speculation had been brewing that Ziady’s position may be in jeopardy after acting UD president Nancy Targett commissioned a survey of athletics personnel by Collegiate Sports Associates. It included personal interviews with all UD head coaches.

Asked about that survey earlier this fall, Targett said: “What we wanted to do is pull out ‘Where are the strengths?,’ so the next president comes in and understands where the strengths are in athletics or across any other units that are being surveyed . . . There may be a need for more resources or realignment or whatever. All of that can come out in a credible, independent survey.”

Apparently, that “realignment” involves new leadership in athletics.

UD announced Nov. 18 that Dennis Assanis, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Stony Brook University, would become its new president sometime in 2016. He replaces Patrick Harker, who left earlier this year to become chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia.

Less than two weeks after Assanis’ hiring, UD reported that Scott Douglass, its executive vice president and treasurer, would leave in January to become a vice chancellor at North Carolina State. Several other vice presidential posts have also since turned over.

Ziady’s departure now gives Assanis the opportunity to choose an athletic leader to his liking. Delaware has 21 varsity teams playing NCAA Division I sports – 13 women’s and eight men’s – that had revenue of $29.4 million for the 2014-15 school year, according to U.S. Dept. of Education Equity in Athletics data.

When The News Journal requested the opportunity to speak with Targett Monday after she addressed athletic staffers at the Carpenter Center, UD spokesperson Andrea Boyle Tippett, without consulting with Targett, responded: “She doesn’t have anything else to say.”

Taking over as AD on an interim basis is Matt Robinson, a professor who is director of the sport management program in UD’s Lerner College of Business and Economics and is very familiar to Blue Hens coaches.

Among his many sports-related duties, Robinson is chairman of the Delaware Sports Commission, directs the International Coaching Enrichment Certificate Program, which brings international coaches to Delaware and the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and directs sports research for the Center for Applied Business and Economics Research. That has brought him in contact with many major sports organizations and teams, including the U.S. Soccer Federation, U.S. Golf Association, Philadelphia 76ers, Baltimore Ravens and Baltimore Orioles, among others.

When a new full-time AD is hired in 2016, he or she will be Delaware’s third since 2009. Before that, Delaware had just two – David Nelson and Edgar Johnson – from 1951 to 2009.

Though the university does not typically reveal employment terms, The News Journal has learned Ziady still had two years left on his contract.

Ziady had been at Boston College for 14 years and was its senior associate athletic director/business operations when he was hired by Delaware several months after Bernard Muir left to became AD at Stanford.

“It has been an honor to work with the talented student-athletes at the University of Delaware and with the excellent team of coaches, staff and administrators,” Ziady said in a UD statement. “We have accomplished a lot together, but the time is right for me to pursue new opportunities and for the university’s new leadership to have an opportunity to provide a fresh direction.”

In that same statement, Targett said:

“Throughout his time at UD, Eric Ziady has been committed to the comprehensive success of our student-athletes: on the playing field, in the classroom and in the community. He has overseen major improvements to athletic and recreation facilities that will serve all students on our campus for years to come.’’

Ziady hadn’t been on the job long when, on Jan. 7, 2013, it was announced that K.C. Keeler had been fired as football coach, despite leading Delaware to three NCAA title games, winning one, over 11 seasons. While Ziady said the decision was his, The News Journal has learned Ziady was acting on the wishes of Harker.

On Jan. 18, 2013, in his first major move as AD, Ziady announced the hiring of Dave Brock as football coach. Brock had been on the Boston College football staff from 2009-11.

Brock, who had frequently expressed his confidence in the direction of the football program and athletic department, was among several coaches who would not comment on Monday.

“Eric was an AD who really looked out for the student-athletes,” women’s basketball coach Tina Martin said. “I think he’s a man of integrity, a man of honesty.”

It was Ziady’s handling of the men’s basketball coaching situation that drew the most attention recently. He and coach Monte Ross could not come to an agreement on a contract extension after Delaware won the 2014 Colonial Athletic Association title. Ross began the 2014-15 season, the final year on his contract, without a new deal, though Ross had rejected and then decided to accept an offer that was then withdrawn by Ziady. Ross coached an apparent lame-duck season, costing Delaware a recruiting class.

Ziady seemed poised to dismiss Ross and begin a search for a new coach after Delaware's season ended in March. But Harker, Douglass and several members of the board of trustees intervened, and Ross was given a new three-year contract.

The official announcement of that agreement was made on UDaily, operated by the university's communications and public affairs office, rather than the athletic department’s news source Bluehens.com. It also did not quote Ziady, who also would not answer questions from The News Journal that day.

On Monday, Ross also would not comment on Ziady’s departure.

Ziady's April firing of softball coach Jaime Wohlbach raised eyebrows and did not include any public explanation. Wohlbach said she was told she ran “a hostile environment."

Several coaches said Ziady’s micro-management methods were unwelcome and he lacked effective communications skills, creating an environment one termed as “toxic.”

From a fans' perspective, plans to modernize Delaware Stadium remained in limbo because of the university's inability to secure the major funding it would require. Also, football attendance suffered a serious decline, with 2014 and 2015 numbers the lowest since Delaware Stadium’s 1970 expansion.

On the other hand, Ziady’s UD tenure saw academic progress and several major facility improvements.

The Delaware Field House received artificial turf, giving outdoor teams an indoor practice facility. Hannah Stadium, the baseball facility, also received an overhaul that featured an artificial-turf installation. The Stuart and Suzanne Grant Soccer Stadium was constructed after a $1.5 million gift from the Grants and featured expanded seating capacity of 1,400 and a pressbox. Football also received new practice fields this year.

In 2013, a $25 million renovation of Carpenter Sports Building, the recreational facility used by students, faculty, staffers and alumni, was completed.

Ziady secured an all-sports five-year apparel contract with adidas, oversaw a state-branding campaign that saw the shape of Delaware added to fields, team uniforms and playing surfaces and was AD while Delaware student-athletes had their best-ever academic showing.

Ziady also earned praise from the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association for his involvement in getting the state football championship high school games back to Delaware Stadium for the first time since the 1970s. Regular-season high school games also became a staple.

“Eric has done some good things that the university will continue to benefit from,” men’s soccer coach Ian Hennessy said. “Whenever one of those surveys is done it often is a bellwether for change. They always say sports is the window to the university. With the landscape of college sports changing the way it is, this is a chance for the new president to bring his own person in and forge that landscape.”